Stumbling Stones in Chemnitz
Hersz Rappel, Recha Rappel, Ingrid Rappel
Hersz Rappel
Born: 27/03/1896
Died: 04.01.1961 (?)
Recha Rappel, née Friedmann
Born: 20.09.1891
Died: 16.01.1960
Ingrid Rappel
Born: 11/09/1921
Died: August 1979
Laying location:
Helenenstraße 46 (today Walter-Oertel-Straße)Stumbling stone laying on:
29 May 2024
Photos of the laying of the Stumbling Stones
Life path
The merchant Hersz Rappel was born in Warsaw. The city was the capital of the Kingdom of Poland (Congress Poland) from 1815. He lived in Germany from autumn 1917. He initially stayed in Magdeburg. In February 1919, he moved to Chemnitz, where his stepbrother Kelman (also known as Karl) had been living since 1906.
In autumn 1920, Hersz Rappel, who called himself Hermann in the business world, moved temporarily to Berlin, where he married Recha Friedmann on 7 October 1920. His bride was from Berlin. A few weeks later, the couple, who now had Polish citizenship, moved to Chemnitz. Their daughter Ingrid was their only child. She was born at Reichsstraße 39, where the maternity clinic of gynaecologist Dr Hermann Uhle (†1935) was located.
Hersz Rappel initially opened a woollen goods and ladies' ready-to-wear shop. The shop was located at Kirchgässchen 7, and he opened a branch at Gartenstraße 23. The shop subsequently became "Wollwarenhaus Rappel GmbH", which traded in woollen and other goods. Hersz Rappel and his wife were the partners. From March 1926, the woollen goods shop was located at Gartenstraße 15, directly opposite the former "Admirals-Palast" coffee house. The previous branch remained.
The couple had finally arrived in the Chemnitz business world when they found a flat on Kaßberg. They moved to Helenenstraße 46, part of the Helenenhof, which at the time was a pioneering example of spacious living. The flats already had a bathroom, a water closet and a balcony off the kitchen. And the couple also found a number of communal facilities there. In addition to chemists, confectioners and hairdressers, there was also a sales outlet of the co-operative dairy eGmbH. Retired pastor Karl-Heinz Kleve assumes that Recha Rappel was one of the customers of his mother, who worked in the shop.
After the National Socialists came to power, the situation changed immediately. Their first attacks were also directed against Jewish business owners. The call for a boycott on 1 April 1933 also hit Rappel's woollen goods shop with full force. The couple decided to rename their business in July 1936. They dropped the addition "Wollwarenhaus". Despite this, they filed for bankruptcy in July 1938.
Ingrid, who had trained as a hairdresser, was able to emigrate to England in 1938. From then on, she lived in London, where her cousin Bernhard Kirschenzweig, who was almost the same age, took her in. Unlike her daughter, her parents were still in Chemnitz when they were expelled from the country as part of the "Polish Action". However, with the help of Mieczyslow (also Meiro) Kirschenzweig, a nephew living abroad, the couple were able to leave Poland in 1939 and emigrate to Italy. They ended up in the Ferramonti di Tarsia internment camp in southern Italy, which was set up in June 1940. In January 1946, the couple were able to leave Italy on board the passenger ship "Rainbow Bridges" and settle in the USA, but without a valid visa. In March 1946, the couple travelled from Ontario (New York) to Canada in order to officially enter the USA from there. From then on, they lived in Chicago.
In February 1947, Ingrid Rappel was also able to leave England for the USA. Samuel Wolicki, her future husband, had vouched for her. They married in the USA in March 1947. The family was finally reunited. Eleven months later, their daughter Eva Ruth was born in Chicago.
Author: Dr Jürgen Nitsche
Stumbling stones in Chemnitz
It is a project against forgetting: stumbling stones have been laid in Chemnitz every year since 2007.
Embedded in the pavement, the memorial stones commemorate the tragic fates of fellow citizens who were persecuted, deported, murdered or driven to their deaths during the National Socialist regime.
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